Hien Ngo 

Class of 2025
Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies major with a minor in Asian American Diaspora studies.

My research question seeks to analyze the genealogies of political thought in NOVA; what type of praxis was cultivated here distinctly because of how NOVA was formed? Organizers and community members are part of lineages ravaged by American imperialism. One example is Guatemala in which America funded a violent coup in the 50s to expand its capitalist reach. These communities were either part of the 2nd or 1.5 generation and most often went to schools in NOVA and stayed in the state for college. There, they created friendships and solidarities across diasporas, and when they moved back to NOVA, organized and built communities. My hypothesis is that their anti-imperial politics were made because of the intimate engagements between communities facilitated by NOVA. Through ethnographic research with interlocutors from the organizations mentioned above, I hope to trace the radical genealogies I see emerging out of NOVA to the empire itself. How is NOVA a product of empire, and how have NOVA residents, as descendants of imperialism and in recognition of America as an empire, helped create such a robust radical home?